A Psychological Evaluation of a Competition-based Learning Environment

This paper introduces a psychological analysis of the behavior of a group-based project. This approach is based on an experimental study of a car lab competition. Several cognitive and physical criteria have been self-evaluated by the student members of the competition teams, and recorded on a daily basis prior to the competition. The results reveal a series of significant patterns that outline some noteworthy relationships between the final competition outcome and some cognitive states such as expectation, investment, stress and fitness. The novelty of the approach lies in the development of an observation framework at a low level of abstraction, and that provides a complementary psychological and physical monitoring system for the full benefits of both students and teachers. Another important outcome is that clearly this kind of project learning and proactive environment favor the development of hands-on and collaboration skills.